


Tardy

by things_that_matter



Series: CMBYN: Life with Ollie [42]
Category: Call Me By Your Name (2017), Call Me By Your Name - All Media Types, Call Me by Your Name - André Aciman
Genre: Brothers, Comfort, Domestic Fluff, Elementary School, Family Drama, Family Feels, Family Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:53:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29546823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/things_that_matter/pseuds/things_that_matter
Summary: Elio gets Ollie to school late again... or does he?
Relationships: Oliver/Elio Perlman
Series: CMBYN: Life with Ollie [42]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2094873
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	Tardy

When Elio looked at the clock, his eyes grew wide with alarm. “Ollie!! We’re late! Let’s go!” he called while hastily grabbing his keys and books. 

Ollie looked at him with a mouthful of cereal. “Huh?” he said around his Cheerios. He was impressed that not a single one fell out of his mouth, but Elio didn’t even notice. 

“Let’s GO,” Elio called with much more urgency than he typically ever employed. 

Ollie looked down at his bowl of cereal as if his life was at a crossroad. Elio rolled his eyes, trekked over to his little brother, handed him a Pop Tart, and began pulling him toward the door. 

Ollie allowed himself to be dragged toward the door, all of his focus now on the Pop Tart that had been thrust into his hand. 

Once in the car, Elio apologized. “Sorry for rushing you Ollie. I looked at the clock wrong earlier. We’re almost an hour late,” he explained. 

Ollie’s face continued to register confusion, his gaze still set on his Pop Tart. 

“What’s wrong?” Elio asked. He was starting to calm down. 

Ollie looked up at him with the most serious look on his little face. “It’s raw,” he complained. 

Elio chuckled. “Pop Tarts are precooked. It’s not raw,” he assured his little brother. 

Ollie looked doubtful. “Then why do they go in the toaster?” he wanted to know. 

“The toaster just warms them. They aren’t actually raw,” Elio promised. 

Ollie slid it into his backpack, hoping Elio wouldn’t notice. He didn’t. When they pulled up to the school building, Ollie felt uneasy. 

“Where is everyone?” he asked. Usually when Elio dropped him off, there were buses being unloaded, kids waiting in line to enter the building, and at least two teachers out with them to supervise. Today, the place was deserted. 

“They are inside already. School started an hour ago,” Elio reminded him. 

Ollie sat in the car, staring at the building. “But…” he tried to tell his brother that something was wrong, but Elio wouldn’t listen. 

“Ollie, please. I’m late, too,” Elio pleaded. 

Ollie shook his head. He was beginning to feel upset. “Nuh-uh. You have to sign me in,” he whined. 

“I can’t. Tell your teacher I’m sorry. I’ll call them later,” he said. 

Ollie hesitated another moment, but then Elio pinned him with a serious look that he was unfortunately all too familiar with. It meant you were about to be in trouble. So Ollie did the only thing he could do. He climbed out of the car and made the long, lonely journey down the sidewalk and to the door of the building. 

Once inside, Ollie stopped at the office for a tardy slip. Since he stopped riding the bus, this was a familiar routine. But today, something was wrong. No one was in the office. The lights were off. Although the building was unlocked, the office door was locked. Ollie felt a lump forming in his throat. Next, he walked to his classroom. His heart sank at what he saw there. Another locked door. Next he checked the library. The cafeteria. The computer lab. Every room was locked. Every light was off. He saw the custodian, and he almost asked for help, but he was scared. He knew something was wrong, and he didn’t want to get in trouble. He wondered if there was a field trip everyone had gone to, and he missed out because he was late. He suddenly remembered that Oliver had gotten him a phone that wasn’t a real phone so he could call in an emergency. But when he pulled it out of his backpack, it was dead. He almost started to cry then, because he was warned he would be grounded if he didn’t keep it charged. Not knowing what else to do, he walked out to the playground and sat down on a bench to eat his raw Pop Tart. 

When he reached the playground though, he saw the adjacent neighborhood and remembered he had a friend there. He wiped the tears from his eyes and took off walking, Pop Tart forgotten, abandoned on the bench. 

Elio sped to school himself. He’d missed his first class, but if he hurried, he thought he could make the second one. When he reached campus though, he knew something wasn’t right. It should be difficult to find a parking spot by this time, yet there were plenty of spots in the closest lot. 

“What?” Elio asked himself. Suddenly he realized that Oliver hadn’t called him to ask whether Ollie was late for school. This was something Oliver did almost everyday. 

“What??” Elio asked himself, more urgently this time. All at once, he knew what happened. Pulling out his phone to check the time, his hunch was confirmed. He wasn’t late. He was early. He had looked at the clock wrong. Which meant Ollie had been early. Very early. Elio headed back to Ollie’s school at a speed that made his earlier speed feel like a snail’s pace. 

When he got to the school, the first buses were unloading. Several students were in line. Two teachers were supervising. Elio jumped out of the car, partially blocking the car rider line earning him some nasty looks which he promptly ignored. He ran up to the teachers, dizzy and out of breath. 

“Can I help you?” one of the teachers asked with a concerned tone to her voice. Concerned _for_ him or concerned _about_ him, Elio wasn’t certain. 

“I’m looking for Ollie Perlman,” he explained breathlessly. 

“And you are?” the two teachers looked at each other. Definitely concerned  _ about _ him, he decided. 

“My name is Elio Perlman. I’m his legal guardian. There are court orders in his file. I dropped him off too early. I need to make sure he’s okay,” he explained as calmly as he could. Which wasn’t particularly calmly because he was by now fully panicked. 

“Why did you drop him off early?” the teacher wanted to know. 

Elio felt like exploding. The only thing that caused him to keep his cool was the fact that this was a school. Two places where you never want to lose your cool: schools and airplanes. 

“It was an accident. I looked at the clock wrong,” he explained. There was a deliberate calmness to his voice. 

“So your clock is set wrong?” the teacher was confused. 

“No, I was looking at an analog clock and I just looked at it wrong. It’s beside the point. I need to talk to him,” he was speaking with the calmness only employed by those who are about 60 seconds away from becoming completely unhinged. 

“Do you not have a clock on your phone?” was her next question. 

“Oh my God,” he muttered. 

“Sir, if he’s not here,” she waved her arm indicating the kids waiting in line, “then he’s not at school. This is everyone.” 

“Are you sure?” he asked. But he was already dialing the police. 

Ollie was proud of himself. He’d found his friend’s house easily. They were home, and they were happy to let him in. They even gave him some Froot Loops. He thanked them profusely. “These are better than Cheerios AND raw Pop Tarts. Oliver says they are bad for you because they aren’t even allowed to spell fruit correctly because they are just sugar and chemicals but I still love them,” he chattered enthusiastically. 

“Do you need to call your parents?” his friend’s mother asked.

Ollie shook his head. “No. I’d get in trouble.”

She would have insisted, but it was time for school now anyway. 

“Five minutes, everyone!” She called instead. 

When they arrived at school a few minutes later, there were police cars everywhere. They even had their lights on, but sadly no sirens. 

“Cool!!” Ollie and his friend said together. The bell had already rung, so Ollie didn’t have to wait in line. He ran directly to class, feeling proud of how well everything had worked out. He’d solved a problem on his own, avoided getting in trouble, and even gotten a bowl of the forbidden Froot Loops. Plus he got to see real cop cars with their lights on. It was pretty much a perfect morning. 

But, when he walked into his classroom, a hush fell over the room. Everyone stopped what they were doing. The teacher looked at him as if she were seeing a ghost, and tears filled her eyes. Just as he was wondering what was going on, Danny smirked at him. “Elio thinks you’re kidnapped. He’s in the office crying. The cops are here and you’re probably going to jail.” 

Ollie looked around shocked and confused. He wasn’t clear on exactly what was going on, but he knew one thing. He wanted off this roller coaster of a day, and the tardy bell hadn’t even rung yet. 

**Author's Note:**

> Believe it or not, this is an almost 100% true story that happened to me in first grade. Only the bit about the pop tart and the Froot Loops were added, and of course the names were changed to protect the not-so-innocent.


End file.
